Investment for development

OECD-CUTS Regional Roundtable on FDI in Transition Economies: Challenges, Policies and Good Practices

5-6 May 2003, Istanbul, Turkey
Centre for Private Sector Development

Overview

Foreign direct investment (FDI) can play an important role in growth and development - a fact that these days is largely uncontested. In 2002, the OECD launched the overview study of Foreign Direct Investment for Development: Maximising Benefits, Minimising Costs, which concluded that, while FDI has potential benefits as well as drawbacks, the benefits in most cases outweigh the costs by a wide margin. In September 2001, the Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), an internationally respected civil society group based in India and an active participant in many OECD events, launched the two-year project entitled "Investment for Development", which aims to create awareness and build capacity on investment regimes and international investment issues in developing and transition economies.

The potential benefits from FDI do not occur automatically. The policies of both host and home countries are crucially important for the outcome of direct investment, as are the practices of the investing enterprises themselves. The main purpose of the OECD-CUTS Regional Roundtable was to provide policy makers and practitioners in transition economies with a forum for dialogue about national experiences. The discussion focused on the usefulness of FDI as a tool for economic development, on the appropriate policies for attracting investment and on policy toward maximising the benefits of foreign corporate presence.